Innocent women deemed guilty

In the 1930s, the “Great Terror” claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people. During the large-scale political repression of 1937–1939, fabricated charges targeted government and public figures, economic leaders, national intellectuals, writers, poets, scholars, statesmen, students educated abroad, and even ordinary citizens.

Labels such as “enemy of the people” and “traitor to the motherland” were applied not only to men but also to their wives, without any evidence or proof. In many cases, once the men were arrested, their wives were also accused and punished. On 15 August 1937, the USSR People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) issued the “Order on the procedure for repressing the wives and children of traitors to the motherland”, which gave this violence and injustice a so-called “legal” basis. According to it, the families of those deemed “enemies of the people” their wives, children, and close relatives were to be imprisoned, exiled, or sent to orphanages.

On this basis, between 1938 and 1939, approximately 18,000 women were sent to labor camps as “wives of traitors to the motherland.” One of the most notorious facilities was the ALZHIR camp (Akmolinsk Camp for Wives of Traitors to the Motherland) in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda region, where more than 6,500 women served sentences between 1938 and 1946. These women were mainly the wives of former leaders, intellectuals, and state officials. Most had committed no crimes at all and were ordinary housewives. Under threats, torture, and violence, many were forced to give statements against their husbands.

According to records, between 15 August 1937 and January 1939, more than 25,000 children across the Soviet Union were separated from their parents. Over 22,000 were placed in orphanages and kindergartens, while those over the age of 15 were deemed “socially dangerous” and sent to correctional colonies or NKVD camps. While women were serving their sentences in the Karaganda camp, more than 1,500 children were born there the majority as a result of violence.

These children, separated from their mothers and stripped of their roots, were indoctrinated into Soviet ideology, forced to forget both their parents and their national identity. They were raised in an entirely different ideological spirit, shaping a “manqurt generation” devoid of historical memory.

In Uzbekistan too, thousands of women wives of intellectuals, public figures, and other social groups were declared guilty without cause and fell victim to repression. They were forced to live under humiliation, enduring both psychological and physical torment. The children, meanwhile, grew up without parents in orphanages, colonies, and children’s camps.

At the Center of Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan, the media project “Repression: Historical Truths” is depicting the repressions of 1937–1939 in a short documentary film.

According to Murod Zikrullaev, Deputy Director of the Museum of the Memory of Repression Victims, “During the Great Terror, thousands of our eminent intellectuals, statesmen, representatives of science, culture, literature, art, and ordinary citizens along with their wives and relatives were unjustly repressed.

Repression is one of the most tragic pages in our history. We cannot turn a blind eye to such events, because doing so would be disrespectful to the memory of our ancestors who fought for the prosperity and freedom of our people. At that time, the Soviet totalitarian regime implemented a policy of repression to consolidate its power. Large-scale repressions began in all union republics. This Great Terror — essentially a political repression is assessed by historians as a genocide carried out against peoples. Through this project, we aim to prove that the policy of repression discriminated against no nation”.

He made these remarks while speaking about the “Repression: Historical Truths” media project, which is expected to be featured in the exhibition of the Center of Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan.

Shahnoza Rahmonova

P/S: The article may be used provided that a link to the official website of the Center is included.